Hutterites

The Hutterites of Montana’s King Colony The National Geographic Channel is on a roll with programs about Anabaptist groups. The popular Amish: Out of Order program is entering its final weeks, while last week a new series called American Colony: Meet the Hutterites premiered on the network. This series examines the lesser-known communal group found […]

Linda Maendel is a member of a Hutterite colony in Manitoba. We last looked at Hutterites back in January in an interview with Mary-Ann Kirkby, the author of I Am Hutterite. Hutterites live primarily in Canada and the Upper Midwest, and have some similarities to Amish. Hutterites share the same Anabaptist roots as Amish and […]

South Dakota became the latest addition to the Amish map in 2010 when families from Wisconsin began moving to Hutchinson County in the southeast part of the state. The group got a good bit of media attention along with other new Amish communities in Western states such as Colorado. South Dakota is better known as […]

Last week’s interview with Mary-Ann Kirkby about her memoir I Am Hutterite got a nice response. Some of us had just heard of Hutterites for the first time, while others had even visited Hutterite colonies. In comparison with Amish, Hutterites are not very well-known. This is probably due in part to their remote location in […]

Mary-Ann Kirkby was raised on a Hutterite colony in Manitoba. When Mary-Ann was 9, her family–parents, herself, and six siblings–left the colony for the world. I Am Hutterite is Mary-Ann’s memoir of life at Fairholme Colony, and her adjustment to living “outside the ark”. The Hutterites Hutterites are spiritual cousins of the Amish. The two […]

The concept of “Amish community” has a number of meanings The term “Amish community” is often used to refer to the Amish in general. For instance, you might hear the questions, “What does the Amish community do when a barn burns down?” or “What does the Amish community believe about technology?” Sometimes the term is used […]

Since the mid-1800s, the Hutterites have comprised 3 main groups–the Lehrerleut, the Dariusleut, and the Schmiedeleut. The Lehrerleut are considered the most conservative, with the Schmiedeluet being the most progressive, and Dariusleut somewhere in between. However, in 1992, The Schmiedeleut experienced an internal division, creating 2 separate Schmiedeleut groups. Donald Kraybill’s Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, […]

We use them all the time, but ever wonder how reference books and resources get put together? In a guest post today, Donald Kraybill offers a peek into the writing and research process for the Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites: Compiling the Concise Encyclopedia was a daunting task. In fact if I […]

Donald Kraybill just had a busy month. Most people would consider releasing one book an event, but in October Kraybill released two–The Amish Way: Patient Faith in a Perilous World, co-authored with Steven Nolt and David Weaver-Zercher, and the Concise Encyclopedia of Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites. Timing of the release was something of a […]

One writer’s thoughts on the benefits of an Amish school education. The Amish media onslaught continues. Lately Amish families have showed up on the too-many-kids-to-count reality shows. I don’t watch them, but I happened to catch pieces of the ’18-kids-and-counting’ Amish appearance (no longer online) last week. The 18 kids family took their busload to […]